Hey all. My N. chromatus molted last night. Please help me sex this T. It looks male to me, but im new to sexing.

Hi Wynster,

So far as I can tell, this looks female. Some of the more experienced keepers will probably correct me, but I used this link:

www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?p=1580098

There is a female N. chromatus exuvium near the bottom of the page, as well as a ventral shot. Maybe this will help. As far as research goes, if the T has a white spot on the ventral shot, either the epigastic furrow or the epigyne, then this indicates a male in the species. I am not sure how accurate that is though, this is according to AB on the above link.

Here is the male exuvium:

www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=54718&page=4

Hope this helps

Thanks, that does help, but is still think male. There is no flap that I can see. The T is still small. Only about 6cm now. Will luckily still have lots of molts to look at. Hope your right and im wrong. Would be great news if its female.

Well, I hope it's a female for your sake too. I'll be holding thumbs

The reason I say it's female is beacuse it doesn't seem to have the extruding spermatheca displayed in the male exuvium example. Maybe they are too small for me to see.

Finding out that a T is a male is a downer as far as I am concerned. Unless I am specifically looking for a male of the species I prefer to keep females because they far outlive the males so there is much more bang for your buck.

That being said, I have a male G rosea that I purchased as a mature male in May 2009 (my first T). He is still going strong and I have yet to see him make a sperm web. Perhaps I got him after he'd been mated and now he is just waiting to die, but I was under the impression that this usually happens within a year or so of reaching sexual maturity, so his time is close so far as I can tell.

Masta_Splinta wrote:

That being said, I have a male G rosea that I purchased as a mature male in May 2009 (my first T). He is still going strong and I have yet to see him make a sperm web. Perhaps I got him after he'd been mated and now he is just waiting to die, but I was under the impression that this usually happens within a year or so of reaching sexual maturity, so his time is close so far as I can tell.

I read somewhere that males of the very long-living species can actually live for a few years. Hope it's true for you. If you want him to make a sperm web, try placing some webbing of a mature female in his enclosure. Maybe that gets him going

Marula wrote:

Hope it's true for you. If you want him to make a sperm web, try placing some webbing of a mature female in his enclosure. Maybe that gets him going

Thanks Marula

I have come to terms that he is a MM and that it was my stupidity for not researching these things before making that purchase. He is the one responsible for overcoming my fear of spiders and also the one who instilled in me my love of T's so he will always be fondly remembered even when he does pass on

I would like to breed with him because I have read that they are fairly easy to breed. That and they are a very hardy species to start with.

My breeding knowledge is slim to none, this breeding project will be my first ever, so there is sure to be a learning curve. I am already looking at plans for mechanical moms to simplify the process further.

I have read about placing webbing in the enclosure here on the forums. I was under the impression that the mature males put down sperm webs when they were ready to mate, not on introduction to a suitable female?

I will definitely try the webbing idea, but is it not the wrong season to start breeding? Would it not be better to wait for the warmer months (September onwards)?